1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a fluid pump/generator. Specifically, a fluid pump/generator in which the rotor includes magnetic vanes that act as an impeller and interact with magnetic poles of the stator.
2. Related Art
In conventional electrically driven pumps, the pump and motor are connected through a shaft and the pump and the motor are each contained within their own housing. The disadvantages of the conventional pump, inter alia, includes: economic inefficiency due to the use of both motor and pump and increased parts; higher energy consumption due to the cooling of motor; low reliability due to the interaction between motor and pump; and increased size. Some previous attempts have been made to eliminate these disadvantages of a conventional pump.
Allen et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,056,518) discloses an electrically driven fluid pump that includes an integrated motor. However, this apparatus still uses both a motor and a pump, with fluid flowing around the motor.
Takura et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,584 B2) discloses an electrically driven fluid pump that integrates some protrusions and some recesses in the outer circumference of a rotor of a motor. The rotor is caused to rotate to cause fluid to be drawn in at a suction port on one end of the rotor and discharged at the other end of the rotor. However, removal of material from the rotor to form the recessions fundamentally limits efficiency because motor efficiency will tend to drop as additional material is removed from the rotor for the sake of improving pumping efficiency.
Werson et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,499,966 B1) discloses an electrically driven fluid pump. However, as in Allen, the motor and pump are two separate systems.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need in the art for a way to integrate a fluid pump and motor more closely and eliminate the deficiencies of the prior art.
A switched-reluctance motor (SRM) is a suitable type of motor for such integration. FIG. 1 (Prior Art) shows a three-phase 24/16 SRM. The SRM comprises steel laminations on the stator and rotor and windings placed around each salient pole of the stator, though there are other ways to wind the SRM. There are no windings or permanent magnets on the rotor, making the structural integrity of the rotor compatible with operation at very high speeds.